


carve your name into my arm

by wishfulfiction



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Heteronormativity, High School, Internalized Homophobia, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-03
Updated: 2016-03-03
Packaged: 2018-05-24 11:20:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6152026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wishfulfiction/pseuds/wishfulfiction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhett found out his soulmate’s name when he was fifteen. He was a late bloomer – by sophomore year of high school most people already knew their soulmate’s name. Despite the fact he’d told nearly everyone who asked that he didn’t care, he’d still waited for the day rather impatiently. Rhett was many things, but patient wasn’t one of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	carve your name into my arm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [jerk3max](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jerk3max/gifts).



> I haven't published anything in ages, and this is my first attempt at R&L fic. As always, comments, kudos, etc are appreciated!
> 
> The title is from Every You, Every Me by Placebo.

Rhett found out his soulmate’s name when he was fifteen. He was a late bloomer – by sophomore year of high school most people already knew their soulmate’s name. Despite the fact he’d told nearly everyone who asked that he didn’t care, he’d still waited for the day rather impatiently. Rhett was many things, but patient wasn’t one of them.

His mom had called the whole experience “Earth-shattering,” like a big deal that changed the rest of his life. She’d managed to find her match when she was just seventeen, married him when she was nineteen, a fairytale by most standards. And even though the _romantic_ aspect of the names escaped him, Rhett managed to appreciate the little things, _at least I’ve got a name, at least it’s not messed up._

Rhett was at home when it happened, hunched over his desk working on the geometry homework he’d pushed off as long as possible. He’d just finished the last proof of the page when he winced, dropping his pencil and gripping his wrist tightly, gasping at the sudden, sharp pain. The black writing was immediately noticeable when he removed his hand, and it took everything in him not to exclaim in excitement.

Finally. _Finally_ he knew.

The scrawl was messy, written over the skinny expanse of his wrist in dark black letters. When he finally made it out, eyes slightly blurry (he _wasn’t_ crying, he wasn’t), his heart _hurt_.

 _Link_.

It felt like someone had punched him in the stomach, all of the wind knocked out of him, it was worse, _so much worse_ , than he could have ever imagined. Link was his friend, his _best_ friend, but he – he just _couldn’t_. Even if he wanted to, even _if_ , he couldn’t love him the way a soulmate should be loved. He had sunk low in his chair, enough to where he was practically on the floor. He had managed to get himself on his bed before crying, honest-to-goodness crying, burying his face in his pillows and muffling the sound as much as possible.

He didn’t let his mom see it. Or his dad, for that matter. He loved his parents and they loved him, but he didn’t know if they could love him through that. He could protest up and down that he didn’t love Link that way, he wasn’t _gay_ , but, well. There were assumptions he knew they would make, conclusions they would come to, that he couldn’t come back from.

They didn’t really question it, a fact that Rhett was eternally grateful for. Most people were fairly secretive with their names, especially when they first revealed, so his dad just clapped him on the back – “Good to know you know her name, son” – and his mom bought him a dark leather band to cover it up the day after.

 

_____

 

Link, however, wasn’t as easily dissuaded.

“C’mon man, it showed! Who is it – Amber? Maybe it’s someone you haven’t even met yet, someone you’ll meet in college! Man, can I see it? I bet she’s got real nice handwriting too.”

Rhett clears his throat, shaking his head. The sinking feeling he’d felt when he’d seen Link’s name etched into his wrist returns, making him feel slightly off-balance. He tries to calm himself down, repeating the rationale he’d managed to come up with: So what if he didn’t have his soulmate’s name, maybe God messed it up and just put his best friend, his blood brother’s name instead – it was almost the same, maybe better, what if he’d had someone with a _terrible_ name, someone he couldn’t stand?

He could stand Link. He could grow old with Link too, but that was mostly beside the point.

“Nah, man, it’s personal,” Rhett says, pushing Link’s hand away when he grabs for the leather wrapped around his wrist. “You’re wrong about the handwriting though, it’s messy.”

Link makes a thoughtful noise, an exaggerated ‘hmmmm’ and crosses his arms over his chest. His name’s on his arm too, etched into the inside of his forearm, but he doesn’t bother hiding it. The black is a series of incoherent scribbles, formally diagnosed as _obscure nomen_. Link’s mom had dragged him to six different doctors before she gave in, told him it would be alright, he’d find his soulmate even without knowing their name. Link, for all of the initial disappointment, was surprising good-natured about it.

“Well, maybe she’s a doctor, or a lawyer, I’ve heard they’ve got terrible handwriting–” Link starts, stopping when Rhett raises an eyebrow at him. “What? I’m going off the very little information you’ve given me – you can’t even tell me her name?”

“ _No_ , I can’t.”

“How many letters?”

Rhett pauses a beat, before sighing. “Four. Can we go to class now? Holden might actually give us detention this time if we don’t show up.”

Link, to his credit, doesn’t ask to look at Rhett’s name again. Well, for the next week, at least.


End file.
